Before (Feb. '94) image oriented and scaled to match "after"
A 1998 Hubble Space Telescope image of SN 1987A.
Supernova 1987A -- July 1997
A 1998 Hubble Space Telescope image of SN 1987A.
Saturn's Ultraviolet Aurora
This is the first image of Saturn's ultraviolet aurora taken by the Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (STIS) on board the Hubble Space Telescope in October 1997, when Saturn was a distance of 810 million miles (1.3 billion kilometers) from Earth. The new instrument, used as a camera,...
Jupiter
A 1998 Hubble Space Telescope image of Jupiter.
Jupiter's Southern Aurora
A 1998 Hubble Space Telescope image of Jupiter.
Jupiter's Northern Aurora
A 1998 Hubble Space Telescope image of Jupiter.
Inner Region of Dust Disk Around Star Beta Pictoris (False Color Image)
A 1998 Hubble Space Telescope image of Beta Pictoris.
Dust Disk Around Star Beta Pictoris (False Color Image)
A 1998 Hubble Space Telescope image of Beta Pictoris.
SN 1997ce
A 1998 Hubble Space Telescope image of SN 1997cj.
SN 1997ce
A 1998 Hubble Space Telescope image of SN 1997cj.
SN 1997cj
A 1998 Hubble Space Telescope image of SN 1997cj.
SN 1997ce
A 1998 Hubble Space Telescope image of SN 1997cj.
COBE's Infrared View of the Universe: Extragalactic Background
After the infrared light from our solar system and galaxy has been removed, what remains is a uniform cosmic infrared background. The line across the center is an artifact from removal of galactic light. The DIRBE team reports detection of this cosmic background light also at 140...
SN 1997ce
A 1998 Hubble Space Telescope image of SN 1997cj.
SN 1997cj
A 1998 Hubble Space Telescope image of SN 1997cj.
COBE's Infrared View of the Universe: Zodiacal Light Removed
This picture represents a view of the sky after the foreground glow of the solar system dust has been extracted. This image is dominated by emission from interstellar dust in the Milky Way Galaxy. The two bright objects in the center of the lower right quadrant are nearby galaxies, the...
COBE's Infrared View of the Universe: Observed Sky
This picture represents the brightness of the full sky as seen in infrared light. The bright yellow-orange line across the center of the image arises from interstellar dust in the plane of our Milky Way Galaxy, with the center of the Galaxy at the center of the image. The red color above...
Spiral-Structured Planetary Nebula NGC 5307
NGC 5307 also lies in Centaurus but is about 10,000 light-years away and has a diameter of approximately 0.6 light-year. It is an example of a planetary nebula with a pinwheel or spiral structure; each blob of gas ejected from the central star has a counterpart on the opposite side of the star.
Planetary Nebula NGC 7009
Like NGC 6826, NGC 7009 has a bright central star at the center of a dark cavity bounded by a football-shaped rim of dense, blue and red gas. The cavity and its rim are trapped inside smoothly-distributed greenish material in the shape of a barrel and comprised of the star's former outer...
Two-Lobed Planetary Nebula Hubble 5
Hubble 5 is a striking example of a "butterfly" or bipolar (two-lobed) nebula. The heat generated by fast winds causes each of the lobes to expand, much like a pair of balloons with internal heaters. This observation was taken Sept. 9, 1997 by the Hubble telescope's Wide Field and Planetary...
Planetary Nebula NGC 3918
NGC 3918 is in the constellation Centaurus and is about 3,000 light-years from us. Its diameter is about 0.3 light-year. It shows a roughly spherical outer envelope but an elongated inner balloon inflated by a fast wind from the hot central star, which is starting to break out of the spherical...
Eye-Shaped Planetary Nebula NGC 6826
NGC 6826's eye-like appearance is marred by two sets of blood-red "fliers" that lie horizontally across the image. The surrounding faint green "white" of the eye is believed to be gas that made up almost half of the star's mass for most of its life. The hot remnant star (in the center of the...
Round Planetary Nebula IC 3568
IC 3568 lies in the constellation Camelopardalis at a distance of about 9,000 light-years, and has a diameter of about 0.4 light-years (or about 800 times the diameter of our solar system). It is an example of a round planetary nebula. Note the bright inner shell and fainter, smooth, circular...
Supersonic Exhaust from Nebula M2-9
M2-9 is a striking example of a "butterfly" or a bipolar planetary nebula. Another more revealing name might be the "Twin Jet Nebula." If the nebula is sliced across the star, each side of it appears much like a pair of exhausts from jet engines. Indeed, because of the nebula's shape and the...
Uranus
A 1997 Hubble Space Telescope image of Uranus.
Uranus
A 1997 Hubble Space Telescope image of Uranus.
Uranus
A 1997 Hubble Space Telescope image of Uranus.
Globular Cluster 47 Tucanae
A 1997 Hubble Space Telescope image of 47 Tucanae, NGC 104.
47 Tucanae
A 1997 Hubble Space Telescope image of 47 Tucanae, NGC 104.
Antennae Galaxy Closeup (NGC 4038/4039 )
A 1997 Hubble Space Telescope image of NGC 4038/4039, Antennae.
NGC 4038/4039, ANTENNAE
This Hubble Space Telescope image provides a detailed look at a brilliant "fireworks show" at the center of a collision between two galaxies. Hubble has uncovered over 1,000 bright, young star clusters bursting to life as a result of the head-on wreck. [Left] A ground-based telescopic view...
Stellar Fireworks Accompany Antennae Galaxy Collision
This Hubble Space Telescope image provides a detailed look at a brilliant "fireworks show" at the center of a collision between two galaxies. Hubble has uncovered over 1,000 bright, young star clusters bursting to life as a result of the head-on wreck. [Left] A ground-based telescopic view...
Close-Up of Star Formation in the Antennae Galaxy (NGC 4038/4039)
A 1997 Hubble Space Telescope image of NGC 4038/4039, Antennae.
NGC 4038/4039, Antennae
A 1997 Hubble Space Telescope image of NGC 4038/4039, Antennae.
Stellar Fireworks Accompany Antennae Galaxy Collision
This Hubble Space Telescope image provides a detailed look at a brilliant "fireworks show" at the center of a collision between two galaxies. Hubble has uncovered over 1,000 bright, young star clusters bursting to life as a result of the head-on wreck. [Left] A ground-based telescopic view...
The Pistol Star: A Brilliant Star in Milky Way's Core
One of the intrinsically brightest stars in our galaxy appears as the bright white dot in the center of this image taken with NASA's Hubble Space Telescope. Hubble's Near Infrared Camera and Multi-Object Spectrometer (NICMOS) was needed to take the picture, because the star is hidden at the...
Mars
A 1997 Hubble Space Telescope image of Mars.
Mars
A 1997 Hubble Space Telescope image of Mars.
Gamma Ray Burst GRB 970228 Appears To Originate Outside Our Galaxy
A 1997 Hubble Space Telescope image of GRB 970228.
Gamma Ray Burst GRB 970228 Appears To Originate Outside Our Galaxy
A 1997 Hubble Space Telescope image of GRB 970228.
NGC 6251
A 1997 Hubble Space Telescope image of NGC 6251.
NGC 6251
A 1997 Hubble Space Telescope image of NGC 6251.
Computer Model of the Asteroid Vesta
A 3-D computer model of the asteroid Vesta synthesized from Hubble topographic data. The crater's 8-mile high central peak can clearly be seen near the pole. The surface texture on the model is artificial, and is not representative of the true brightness variations on the asteroid. Elevation...
Vesta
A color-encoded elevation map of Vesta clearly shows the giant 285- mile diameter impact basin and "bull's-eye" central peak. The map was constructed from 78 Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 pictures. Surface topography was estimated by noting irregularities along the limb and at the terminator...
Vesta
A NASA Hubble Space Telescope image of the asteroid Vesta, taken in May 1996 when the asteroid was 110 million miles from Earth. The asymmetry of the asteroid and "nub" and the south pole is suggestive that it suffered a large impact event. The image was digitally restored to yield an effective...
Red Giant Star Mira
In UV light, Hubble resolves a small hook-like appendage extending from Mira, in the direction of the companion that could be material from Mira being gravitationally drawn toward the smaller star. Alternately, it could be that material in Mira's upper atmosphere is being heated due to the...
Red Giant Star Mira's Football Shape
Hubble's visible-light image of the disk of Mira reveals it has an odd, asymmetrical shape resembling a football. This may be tied to dramatic changes occurring during its expansion-contraction cycles, or to the presence of unresolved spots on its surface. Hubble measurements show the red giant...
Red Giant Star Mira and Its Companion
This is a NASA Hubble Space Telescope image of the cool red giant star Mira A (right), officially called Omicron Ceti in the constellation Cetus, and its nearby hot companion (left) taken on December 11, 1995 in visible light using the European Space Agency's Faint Object Camera (FOC). The...
Corrected Image of the Gravitationally-Lensed Image
A theoretical model of the cluster lens is used to "unsmear" the gravitationally-lensed image back into the galaxy's normal appearance. The corrected image gives a highly magnified view of the distant galaxy with detail 5-10 times smaller than Hubble alone can provide. It clearly shows several...
Location of the Gravitationally Lensed Galaxy in the Cluster
A NASA Hubble Space Telescope image of the galaxy cluster CL1358+62 has uncovered a gravitationally-lensed image of a more distant galaxy located far beyond the cluster. The gravitationally-lensed image appears as a red crescent to the lower right of center. The galaxy's image is brightened,...
Mysterious Fireball from a Cataclysmic Explosion
The visible fireball from a titanic explosion in deep space, called a gamma-ray burst, blazes in the center of this image, taken with the CCD camera (Charge Coupled Device) on the Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph, a new instrument on Hubble Space Telescope. The burst occurred on May 8, and...
A Close-Up of the Gravitationally-Lensed Image
A close-up of the gravitationally-lensed image shows why astronomers are excited about this unique opportunity to study the distant galaxy's structure. The stretched-out image reveals tiny knots of vigorous starbirth activity. This provides a first detailed look at the early construction phase...
Plume of Gas and Dust Spouts From Volcanic Eruption on Io
The Hubble Space Telescope has snapped a picture of a 400-km-high (250-mile-high) plume of gas and dust from a volcanic eruption on Io, Jupiter's large innermost moon. Io was passing in front of Jupiter when this image was taken by the Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 in July 1996. The plume...
Butterfly Wing-Shaped Planetary Nebula NGC 2346
The Hubble Space Telescope's Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 (WFPC2) is back at work, capturing this black-and-white image of the "butterfly wing"-shaped nebula, NGC 2346. The nebula is about 2,000 light-years away from Earth in the direction of the constellation Monoceros. It represents...
A Collision in the Heart of Galaxy Arp 220
The Hubble Space Telescope's Near Infrared Camera and Multi-Object Spectrometer (NICMOS) has uncovered a collision between two spiral galaxies in the heart of the peculiar galaxy called Arp 220. The collision has provided the spark for a burst of star formation. The NICMOS image captures bright...
Mars -- March 10, 1997
The sharpest view of Mars ever taken from Earth was obtained by the recently refurbished NASA Hubble Space Telescope (HST). This stunning portrait was taken with the HST Wide Field Planetary Camera-2 (WFPC2) on March 10, 1997, just before Mars opposition, when the red planet made one of its...
Lagoon Nebula, M8
This NASA Hubble Space Telescope (HST) image reveals a pair of one-half light-year long interstellar "twisters" - eerie funnels and twisted-rope structures (upper left) - in the heart of the Lagoon Nebula (Messier 8) which lies 5,000 light-years away in the direction of the constellation...
Lagoon Nebula, M8
This NASA Hubble Space Telescope (HST) image reveals a pair of one-half light-year long interstellar "twisters" - eerie funnels and twisted-rope structures - in the heart of the Lagoon Nebula (Messier 8) which lies 5,000 light-years away in the direction of the constellation Sagittarius. The...
unknown
Embedded in this Hubble Space Telescope image of nearby and distant galaxies are 18 young galaxies or galactic building blocks, each containing dust, gas, and a few billion stars. Each of these objects is 11 billion light-years from Earth and much smaller than today's galaxies. At this...
Io, Jupiter
This image, shows Jupiter's volcanic moon Io passing above the turbulent clouds of the giant planet, on July 24, 1996. The conspicuous black spot on Jupiter is Io's shadow. The shadow is about the size of Io (3,640 kilometers or 2,262 miles across) and sweeps across the face of Jupiter at 17...
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NASA’s Universe of Learning materials are based upon work supported by NASA under cooperative agreement award number NNX16AC65A to the Space Telescope Science Institute, working in partnership with Caltech/IPAC, Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian, and NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory. The award is part of NASA’s Science Activation program, which strives to further enable NASA science experts and content into the learning environment more effectively and efficiently with learners of all ages.